At Infocomm 2018 today, Logitech announced its new Rally conference room system. The setup features everything that you"d want in a conference room, including 4K UHD video, modular components, and more.
Starting with the Rally Camera, Logitech said that it"s made panning quieter and faster, and that means no more annoying humming noises. With a 13-megapixel sensor and 10x optical zoom, there"s a total of 15x zoom. It"s controlled by an RF remote too, so you"ll no longer have to point the remote control at the device.
The Rally system has separate speakers and mics, as Logitech said that if they"re on the same unit, you can only turn up the volume so much on the speakers without getting feedback. Since they"re separate, the speakers can get a lot louder.
“It’s great to see Logitech applying more intelligence to video meetings. Adding automation to functions like camera control, light and color balance, and acoustic tuning is a natural next step for video meetings,” said Roopam Jain, Industry Director for Conferencing and Collaboration, Frost & Sullivan. “Just as support for HD resolution has become table stakes for conference room cameras, I anticipate that more intelligent and automated meetings will quickly become a standard feature for room and desktop solutions.”
The standalone Rally Camera is $1,299, but it"s also sold in bundles that range between $1,999 and $2,499. The former bundle included a Mic Pod Hub, Mic Pod, and a speaker, while the latter doubles up on the Mic Pods and the speakers. Everything is sold separately though, so you can get a Mic Pod for $349, a Mic Pod Hub for $199, an additional speaker for $249, and a mounting kit for $149. The Rally Camera will be available this month, with everything else coming this fall.
But that"s not all, because Logitech is introducing new automation features to its cameras, including Rally and various others, like Brio. There are three features: RightSight, RightLight, and RightSound.
“Our goal is to eliminate the need to fiddle with remote controls, adjust lighting in the room, and move the mics and speakers around,” said Scott Wharton, vice president and general manager of the Logitech Video Collaboration. “Now, with Logitech RightSense technologies, you get a better automated user experience, with unprecedented audio and video performance. You can walk in and hold your meeting without thinking twice about the experience for the people on the far end.”
RightSight will automatically frame meeting participants in a room. Once the room is framed, it won"t move again, so it won"t be constantly moving around. RightLight optimizes light balance, so if your conference room has a tricky lighting situation, tis feature should help. Finally, RightSound suppresses background noises, for an overall better audio experience.